Whatcom County activist held at ICE facility for 4 months opts to return to Mexico
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- Alfredo Zeferino granted voluntary departure, ending four-month ICE detention
- Zeferino waives future asylum claim, cites poor conditions, seeks prompt exit
- Community groups vow continued advocacy despite Zeferino’s forced return
After months of community protesting and organizing over a Whatcom County farmworker and immigration rights activist’s detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an immigration court judge in Tacoma on Monday granted Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino’s request for voluntary departure from the U.S.
Zeferino, 25, has been held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma since he was detained by ICE on his way to work March 25. Zeferino is from Mexico, and he will be returned to the country by Aug. 13, according to the judge’s decision. Zeferino is planning to go to Guerrero and will not be released from the ICE facility in the meantime.
Larkin VanDerhoef, Zeferino’s attorney, said he hopes Zeferino will be released from custody and returned to Mexico within the next week. By accepting voluntary departure, Zeferino waived his right to apply for asylum in the future.
Zeferino told The Herald following the hearing that he was happy that his request was granted by the judge, but “sad at the same time.”
“It’s not the outcome we wanted,” VanDerhoef said.
VanDerhoef previously advocated for Zeferino to be released on bond, but all requests were denied. He said that after spending nearly four months in the detention facility in what Zeferino described as bad conditions, Zeferino “decided to do as best he could to take matters into his own hands.”
In a four-page statement read outside the detention center following the hearing, Zeferino called the facility a “terrible place.” He said that sometimes he and the other detainees wouldn’t get their third meal of the day until the following morning.
“We all know that the immigration system needs a lot of work,” Zeferino’s statement said. “Now that I am here, I have seen just how bad things are.”
Rep. Rick Larsen visited Zeferino in the facility on June 20. He said the facility currently houses about 1,500 detained individuals and is unable to adequately meet everyone’s needs due to understaffing. In June, 41 immigrants detained in ICE’s Tacoma facility were transferred to an Alaska facility due to overcrowding.
Community support
Family members, friends and community supporters filled four rows of the small courtroom to support Zeferino at his Monday morning hearing, while others from across the region gathered outside the detention center. Among those in attendance were from the Bellingham-based nonprofit Community to Community; Zeferino’s union, Familias Unidas Para la Justicia; the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; and Indivisible Skagit.
Community to Community founder Rosalinda Guillen said supporters are feeling “devastated” by Zeferino’s voluntary deportation, but they also understand why the decision was made.
Guillen said she met Zeferino in 2013 during the farmworker strike at Sakuma Brothers Farms in Burlington. Zeferino was one of the spokespeople for the strike and was “central” to the formation of the farmworkers’ union, Familias Unidas por la Justicia.
“He’s like our kid,” Guillen said. “It’s been a really difficult time for us.”
Guillen had the opportunity to speak with Zeferino following the hearing. She and the others present at court passed a corded phone back and forth to talk to Zeferino, who sat on the opposite side of thick glass.
He smiled when he saw his siblings and the others clustered around the small visitation window. They spoke to him in English and Spanish, and Edgar Franks, who helped form Familias Unidas por la Justicia with Zeferino, told him about the gathering outside.
Franks said Zeferino was one of the nicest people he’d ever met.
“He’s a really down-to-earth person, not really seeking attention,” Franks said. “But when people need help — especially people that are from the farmworker community or Mixteco community — he really fights for them and fights for justice.”
Franks said Zeferino should never have been detained, and instead should “be out here fighting” alongside other advocates.
“He was doing that until the moment he was detained,” Franks said.
ICE detentions on the rise
Zeferino’s 15-year-old sister Alea said she was glad to see the outpouring of support from the community Monday, and was happy that her brother was being released from custody. At the same time, she was upset over what happened to Lelo Zeferino — and to many other immigrants detained by ICE.
Nearly 58,000 people were being held in ICE detention centers as of June 29, according to data analyzed by Syracuse University. More than 66,000 immigrants living in the U.S. illegally were arrested by ICE in the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term, the agency said, and more than 65,000 have been removed from the country.
“I wish this upon no one,” Alea Zeferino said. “I really hope that everything will start to improve and not get worse. And calling us aliens and criminals hurts me so much, because we did nothing to deserve this title. We’re just hardworking people.”
U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington’s 2nd Congressional District issued the following statement Tuesday morning:
“In arrests across the country, the Trump administration and ICE have claimed that they are going after ‘the worst of the worst.’ But like so many others who have been detained, Lelo Juarez does not represent the worst of the worst. He is an activist, a union leader and a beloved family member. It is a tragedy he will not be able to return to his home and loved ones in Skagit County.”
Liz Darrow, Participatory Democracy Program Coordinator for Community to Community, said she hopes to see Bellingham take more action to prevent what happened to Lelo Zeferino from happening to others in the community.
She called out the 2024 dissolution of the city’s Immigration Advisory Board, on which Lelo Zeferino served. She said Lelo “didn’t get the same respect that he was willing to give” when it came to political involvement in Bellingham.
Even with Lelo Zeferino returning to Mexico, Darrow said Community to Community and other local advocates will continue to push for protection for immigrants in Whatcom County and beyond. She also plans to continue to work with Zeferino, even from afar.
“He’s part of our movement,” Guillen said. “He’s part of our organization, and that goes on.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2025 at 1:45 PM with the headline "Whatcom County activist held at ICE facility for 4 months opts to return to Mexico."
